Nowadays, most of us have so many email addresses, it's hard jusy to keep track of our own, let alone manage those of our family and colleagues as well. Throw newsgroup sunscriptions and multiple storage folders into the mix as well, and it's a management nightmare.

Thunderbird allows multiple users to set up the email client to suit their own specific needs and tastes, from Themes and Extensions to Email accounts, Inboxes and Newsgroup subscriptions.
Upon startup of Thunderbird, you are able to choose which user profile you would like to use.
So, you can now have a profile for yourself, one for your partner, and even one for the kids (allowing you to increase Thunderbirds's spam and security measures).
Each profile is independent of the others, so it's like having a new installation for each user.

How do I activate Thunderbird Profiles?

1. Firstly, find the Thunderbird shortcut on your desktop (or create one from the .exe file).
2. Right-click it, and select properties.
3. Lastly, in the Target box, add ' -p' without the apostrophes to the end of the target line (so that it reads something like 'C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe -p'), and click OK.

Now when you start Thunderbird through this shortcut you will be prompted with the Profiles Manager box (as long as you do not already have Thunderbird open). It's all self-explanatory from thereon.

For faster start-up, I advise that you keep two shortcuts on your desktop - one to load up Thunderbird as normal, and this new one to execute only when you want to change profile.

About the author:
Rob Barrett is a professional web designer based in Dorset, England. To read more free articles on Web Design and Mozilla Firefox & Thunderbird, visit: http://articles.rob-barrett.com